Corruption – Pakistan Todayhttps://www.pakistantoday.com.pk
Dedicated to telling the news like it isMon, 19 Nov 2018 19:45:09 +0000en-GBhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.5CM reiterates resolve for development of remote areashttps://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/19/cm-reiterates-resolve-for-development-of-remote-areas/
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/19/cm-reiterates-resolve-for-development-of-remote-areas/#respondMon, 19 Nov 2018 15:48:23 +0000https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/?p=971913...]]>LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Monday reiterated his commitment to work for the development of remote areas and said that every single neglected tehsil of the province, including Taunsa, would be brought at par with developed areas.

Talking to different delegations that called on him, the chief minister said that within the next few years, all neglected localities would be recognised as the developed areas of the province.

He said that districts of southern Punjab had remained backward for the past several decades, adding that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would ensure the provision of basic facilities to the people there.

“Resources were not properly utisilised by the previous governments and problems of the people of Dera Ghazi Khan as well as other backward areas were not addressed. As a result, the areas succumbed to deprivations.”

However, he said, the government was determined to make up for the masses’ losses and a period of composite development would soon be launched.

“I will personally monitor the development schemes aimed at public welfare,” he added.

The chief minister also said that a zero-tolerance policy was being adopted to overcome the menace of corruption and injustice along with the eradication of land-grabbing.

“In a short span of time, the PTI government has taken steps that no other government took during the past 70 years.”

He vowed that the golden principles of merit, transparency, austerity and rule of law would be the conspicuous symbols of the new Pakistan and said the future of the people was being secured under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to refer four new cases regarding a London property belonging to the Sharif family as well as their misuse of government funds and authority to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for investigation.

The announcement in this regard was made by Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Accountability Shahzad Akbar and PM’s Media Adviser Iftikhar Durrani while addressing a press conference on Saturday.

Akbar also disclosed details of the alleged misuse of the PM’s plane by the brother and daughter of Nawaz Sharif.

Highlighting the importance of the media, the PM’s special assistant said that the news of a Sharif owned property was “revealed by the media as a media channel had broken the news of a property [Frederick Close] located in Central London, having a current value of 2.2 or 2.3 million pounds”.

He said that the property’s rental income and ownership documents from 2012 to 2016 had been available “but were put away in files”. These documents state that the Frederick Close apartment was under the name of the former premier’s late wife, Begum Kulsoom.

Shahzad Akbar regretted that the former premier, as a head of state and member of National Assembly (MNA), had failed to declare assets owned by his dependents, adding that there were two modes of undertaking this task, either by the wealth statement that every citizen is required to submit while declaring their spouse’s assets or by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) forms that are submitted as a member of parliament.

He further pointed out that the premier, as an MNA, had also refrained from mentioning his wife’s London apartment in the annual declaration submitted in the National Assembly Secretariat.

While stating that the concealment of the newly discovered property would be dealt with as a new case of assets beyond known income, Akbar said that further investigation of other such possible assets should be carried out by NAB.

He also shared that a tax-related liability has been given to the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) as the case would be pursued by both the NAB and FBR.

Furthermore, Akbar said that the British government had been contacted in this regard.

“We have asked Britain for all these documents and they might come in a week or two. We will put all of that in front of you, what the whole trail of this was — until when this property was under the Sharif family and when they sold it and for how much,” he said.

He said that fresh details would give more insight into the matter; however, land registry documents reveal that the flat was transferred to Hassan Nawaz’s name in August 2016.

“The question comes up again which has remained the question in all the cases: where did these properties come from, what was their source of income, and what is their trail of money. When you don’t declare something and get caught, the first question is where did it come from, you have to declare a source of income for it,” he emphasised.

Moreover, Akbar said that Rs275m were spent on Nawaz’s Jati Umra residence out of national exchequer, Rs600m was spent on air travel by Shehbaz Sharif and Rs340m was spent illegally by Maryam on air travel sponsored by the government.

Addressing reporters, PM’s Media Adviser Durrani said the information shared by China about the Multan Metro Bus Project would be shared with the media soon.

The adviser said the incumbent government had introduced a comprehensive austerity drive in all the departments.

An accountability court in its verdict in the Avenfield properties corruption reference in July this year, had handed the ousted prime minister 10 years rigorous imprisonment for owning assets beyond known income and his daughter Maryam was given 7 years for abettment after she was found “instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father”. Sharif’s son-in-law Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar was given 1 year jail time.

NAB had filed the reference regarding the high-end properties in London, along with two others, on the Supreme Court’s directives in the landmark Panamagate verdict last year which deseated Nawaz as the prime minister.

For the past 15 years, Butt was in partnership with Khawaja Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique, who are already facing the Paragon corruption probe.

The Interior Ministry, on the request of the anti-graft watchdog, had placed the names of the two brothers and Qaiser Ameen Butt on the blacklist.

NAB had launched an investigation into the scandal after protests by dozens of victims against the housing society fraud.

On November 12, in a letter written to NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, Khawaja brothers had sought transfer of the ongoing cases against them form NAB Lahore after expressing distrust over NAB DG Shehzad Saleem.

“On November 8 he [NAB Lahore DG] completely disregard the standard norms of the investigation process by participating in various talk shows,” the brothers had stated in their letter.

]]>https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/14/paragon-housing-society-director-arrested-from-khairpur/feed/0KP accountability commission kept inactive to hide PTI’s corruption: Marriyumhttps://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/11/kp-accountability-commission-kept-inactive-to-hide-ptis-corruption-marriyum/
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/11/kp-accountability-commission-kept-inactive-to-hide-ptis-corruption-marriyum/#respondSun, 11 Nov 2018 18:56:57 +0000https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/?p=968160...]]>ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday said that the ‘compulsive thieves’ locked down the KP accountability commission for five years to hide their massive corruption and are now doing everything to lockdown the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to achieve the same motive.

“Imran Khan has never been held accountable, he has been let go in cases where he confessed the crime himself, which is why he has become a repeat offender and wants to hold the PAC hostage”, she said.

Marriyum advised that the Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary needs to be tutored by her on the operations and functions of the PAC before speaking about it since he has no knowledge regarding this, resulting in embarrassing himself.

She said that Fawwad Chaudhry should clarify before every press conference whether he is speaking as National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) spokesperson or country’s information minister.

She stated that despite being in power, Imran Khan and his cronies are obsessed and possessed with the fear of Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif.

She said that he should hold a prime ministerial address to the nation to unveil billions that the national treasury had lost in the Peshawar Metro Pits, Billion Tree Tsunami Project and proven corruption of the KP Accountability Commission.

“Because of the fact that Fawad Chaudhry is just a political mercenary, and in his desperation to please his paymaster, has become more loyal than the king”, said the former Information minister.

The people of Pakistan have not forgotten Fawad’s contrasting stances varying with his party affiliations, therefore, he needs to start every press conference by apologising to the people of Pakistan for his flip-flopping in the past, she suggested.

She said that in his anxiousness to prove his fidelity, Fawad’s words cannot keep up with the contradictions in his head and he ends up being clumsy while not making any sense. This, she said, is understandable because Fawad has taken upon himself the impossible task of concealing the corruption and incompetence of the PTI cabinet.

The PML-N spokesperson said that instead of using allegations on the opposition as a distraction, Fawad should learn to do his job by telling the people of Pakistan the performance of this inept government.

The people want to know, when will they get those 5 million homes and 10 million jobs, she said.

Fawad needs to tell Pakistanis the truth about the billions worth of property of Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan, she concluded.

The prime minister was expected to address the nation tonight regarding important steps taken by the government.

Chaudhry confirmed PM Imran was to speak on the drive against corruption in the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday vowed to reveal massive corruption scandals on Sunday. The premier made the comments while announcing an anti-poverty package in Lahore. He added that the country has emerged from crises.

]]>https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/11/pm-imran-to-reveal-corruption-scandals-on-sunday/feed/0Payment irregularities of over Rs2 billion uncovered at Multan hospitalhttps://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/09/payment-irregularities-of-over-rs2-billion-uncovered-at-multan-hospital/
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/09/payment-irregularities-of-over-rs2-billion-uncovered-at-multan-hospital/#respondFri, 09 Nov 2018 08:20:17 +0000https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/?p=966942...]]>MULTAN: An anti-corruption unit on Friday uncovered irregularities amounting to more than Rs2 billion in the purchase of surgical instruments and medicines at Multan’s Children Hospital.

According to an official of the anti-corruption unit, a bogus company was paid Rs179 million for medicines and surgical instruments but nothing was paid in actuality.

The official further shared that the company was later paid an additional Rs104 million.

“The national treasury has suffered a loss of Rs283 million owing to the payments made by purchasing officer Kamran Hafeez and accountant Tabshir Naqvi,” the official asserted, adding that an investigation has also been initiated against District Accounts Officer Riaz Haraj and auditor Ramzan Meo.

Moreover, all records of the hospital have been seized by the anti-corruption unit.

Chairing a meeting to review the overall performance of NAB, he said the bureau had introduced a new concept of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a press release said.

The CIT, comprising director, additional director, investigation officer and a senior legal counsel, had been put in place to avoid any sorts of influence in the official proceedings, he said and added that NAB had also established a state-of-the-art forensic lab in Islamabad.

“The facilities at the lab include digital forensics and analysis of the documents in question as well as fingerprints for immaculate investigations.”

He said Transparency International, PILDAT, Mishal and World Economic Forum had already appreciated NAB’s efforts for the eradication of corruption and the bureau, in a very short period of time, had established over 50,000 character building societies in colleges and universities to raise awareness against the menace of corruption.

]]>https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/07/nab-filed-440-corruption-references-from-oct-2017-to-sep-2018-chief/feed/0Islamabad police to set up unit to root out internal corruptionhttps://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/07/islamabad-police-to-set-up-unit-to-root-out-internal-corruption/
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/07/islamabad-police-to-set-up-unit-to-root-out-internal-corruption/#respondWed, 07 Nov 2018 15:33:44 +0000https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/?p=966092...]]>ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Police will establish a unit to check corruption in the force and take strict disciplinary action against those involved in such practices.

This was stated by Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan while addressing the `Police Darbar’ here on Wednesday.

The IGP said that he would not tolerate corruption and bribery in the force and those involved in such practices would be given the boot.

He directed all police officials to take effective measures to ensure the protection of the lives and property of the citizens. He also stressed on adopting a courteous attitude with citizens and performing duties in a professional manner.

He said that the welfare of policemen would be his top priority and that all of the police personnel would have to work as a team for bringing laurels to the force.

The IGP Aamir said that departmental tests would be conducted from constable to inspector level in December and those securing good marks would be given responsibilities of Station House Officers (SHO), Muharrars and so on.

He further said that conciliatory committees would be constituted in Islamabad on the same pattern as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as public complaints to be resolved on priority basis this way.

He also informed the attendees that new inductions and promotions would be made against the vacant seats in the Islamabad Police in December.

Saying that he would conduct a ‘special sitting’ each month, the IGP explained that officers and jawans would be able to brief him about their problems in the near future. “All issues of policemen would be resolved on merit basis and there would be no need to approach anybody else in this regard,” he added.

The IGP also mingled with the policemen and listened to their problems to which he issued directions for immediate resolutions. He also issued directions to exempt the under-training personnel at Police Training School (PTS) from the performance of duties during a law and order situation in the capital.

The premier was presiding over a session in which the federal minister for religious affairs, secretary religious affairs, and secretary ETPB briefed him about the financial irregularities in the board. Following which, the PM expressed concern over the situation and ordered forensic audit of the ETPB.

It was also decided to form a task force and the prime minister summoned a report of all the matters related to the board.

The ETPB had leased out land of Haji Camp Lahore in March, last year.

The prime land measuring 19 kanal and 11 marlas had been leased at a meager rate of 500,000 rupees per kanal. The total premium of Rs 194 million is for a period 30 years which is extendable.
The market rate for lands in the vicinity and adjoining areas ranges between 1.2 million to 1.9 million per kanal.

The ETPB is reported to have leased the land to increase its income. This is also likely to affect training to Hajj pilgrims as suitable alternatives have not been provided for it.

A division bench of the SHC, while hearing the bail plea of ex-IGP and others, sought arguments from the accused’s defence lawyer by the next hearing and granted an extension in the interim bail.

Counsel Mahmood Alam Rizvi told the court that three applications of plea bargaining had been sent to the NAB Director General (DG) and they are now waiting for a verdict on these applications.

The bench ordered the trial court to be informed regarding the applications of plea bargaining. The accused who are seeking plea include Muhammad Rafiq, Muhammad Shafiq and ex-Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Tanveer Ahmed.

Those accused in the corruption references are ex-IGP Ghullam Hyder Jamali, ex-AIG Tanveer Ahmed Tahir and Works and Services sub engineer Rizwan Hussain.

The former IGP, AIG and other officials are accused of allegedly committing corruption in Sindh police funds that resulted in a loss of over Rs15 crores to the national exchequer. The accused had taken funds from the salaries of policemen in the name of funds.

The accused had also caused another loss worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer on the account of maintenance of police vehicles while awarding contracts to their personal contacts without any tender.